Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:04:36 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Rear brake questions
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hi Don,
you gotta have an 85 and later parking brake handle - that's all their is to
it.
the 80 to 84 one sucks.......
and they 'got smart' and improved the 85 and later one 3 different ways.
really, it's 4 times better and if 'real' parking brake action is what you
needed, get rid of that 84 type handle !
it's very normal for them the shoes to wear unevenly. They all do it.
doesn't seem to hurt though.
yes, you could get away with just bleeding the one wheel after replacing
that wheel cylinder .
If your brake fluid isn't too old, that'll be OK.,
Brake fluid should be changed every two years.........including that for the
clutch hydraulic system.
it's not hard to include the clutch slave in your bleeding procedure - just
get the right pedal is the tricky part.
btw..........and fwiw, I only use the 'clear hose in a bottle of brake
fluid' bleeding method.
I don't like the two person method, nor pressure bleeders. I like to feel
whatever master cylinder I'm pushing on actually pushing fluid.
It 'feels right' when it's right.
Never stroke a brake pedal ( except on a new master cylinder ) all the way
to the floor, of course.
last important tip .........a very important one........only do one side at
a time on the rear brakes. That way you have the other side to look at if
you wonder how something fits, and you sure do not want to mix up the parts
left-to-right.
there was a time when brakes shoes were 'arc-ed' to match the new curvature
of the now larger diameter drum, but they don't do that anymore for
environmental reasons.
in getting your initial adjustment on the self-adjuster .............put the
drum on, then go yank on the parking brake handle a bit ........this settles
the shoes into position better...........then take the drum
off...........tweak up the adjuster wheel etc............do that a few
times.
also, I always remove the wheel mounting flange ........makes it SO much
easier to work on the rear brakes that way ~ ~!
plus, if the drum is stuck on the flange.......it's easy to bang the flange
out of the drum with a hammer, once the drum/wheel flange assembly is off
the van.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Hanson" <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2008 11:53 AM
Subject: Rear brake questions
> Hi all,
> I'm doing a rear brake job on my 84. Found one slightly weeping wheel
> cylinder, so I have a replacement for that as well as new shoes for both
> rears. When I replace the wheel cylinder, do I have to do a complete
> bleed?
> Including the clutch? Or just bleed that one wheel's line?
>
> Second question: I notice the old shoes are very worn on the "top" and
> almost full thickness still at the "bottom". "top" meaning the end of the
> shoes that are at the top of the drum next to the wheel cylinder. One
> wheel
> is pretty radical...not the one with the leaky cylinder, BTW. The
> other
> is not quite so bad..with about 3/4 thickness on the shoe at the bottom
> and
> perhaps a mm or two of lining left at the cylinder end.
>
> Is that somewhat normal? Did the PO get the shoes in there wrong? Seems
> like the wear should be more even around the whole radius of the shoes,
> but
> these, it looks like the cylinder end is doing most of the work of
> stopping
> and taking most of the wear.
>
> Well, off to have the drums turned and hopefully I'll have an answer
> waiting...fingers crossed... so I can do the job correctly and finish this
> afternoon.
>
> Thanks, Don Hanson
>
> If it helps, my parking brake barely holds the van on a 5-6% grade when
> pulled on as hard as I can get it..it seems to be adjusted ok, just no
> holding power. I read the mechanical leverage on the older (84) E-brake
> handle is not great, but mine it almost not functioning...and I have a
> horse
> gate to open and close each time up my drive, one on a 5% grade...
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